WINTON GROUP Ltd Reduces Holdings in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB)

WINTON GROUP Ltd lowered its position in Photronics, Inc. (NASDAQ:PLAB) by 24.2% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 24,724 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock after selling 7,904 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd’s holdings in Photronics were worth $582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Photronics by 216.5% during the 4th quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 762 shares during the last quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its position in shares of Photronics by 65.6% during the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,283 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $54,000 after buying an additional 904 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in shares of Photronics by 17.6% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,448 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock valued at $81,000 after buying an additional 516 shares during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Photronics by 76.8% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,467 shares of the semiconductor company’s stock worth $82,000 after buying an additional 1,506 shares during the period. Finally, Heck Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Photronics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $110,000. Institutional investors own 88.38% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Photronics news, Director Walter M. Fiederowicz sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $24.13, for a total transaction of $241,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 32,000 shares in the company, valued at $772,160. This represents a 23.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Kang Jyh Lee sold 17,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.10, for a total value of $421,750.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 510,850 shares in the company, valued at $12,311,485. This trade represents a 3.31 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 77,500 shares of company stock worth $1,829,138. Company insiders own 3.20% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, DA Davidson upped their price objective on Photronics from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th.

Photronics Price Performance

Photronics stock opened at $20.60 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $1.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.86 and a beta of 1.43. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $21.94 and a two-hundred day moving average of $23.48. Photronics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $19.61 and a 1 year high of $31.60.

Photronics (NASDAQ:PLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The semiconductor company reported $0.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $212.14 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $210.00 million. Photronics had a return on equity of 9.10% and a net margin of 15.07%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.48 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Photronics, Inc. will post 2.3 earnings per share for the current year.

About Photronics

Photronics, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of photomask products and services in the United States, Taiwan, China, Korea, Europe, and internationally. It offers photomasks that are used in the manufacture of integrated circuits and flat panel displays (FPDs); and to transfer circuit patterns onto semiconductor wafers, and FDP substrates.